Key statistics

About this report

This report captures notifications received by the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC) under the Notifiable Data Breaches (NDB) scheme between 1 July 2018 and 30 September 2018 (data breaches).

The OAIC publishes quarterly statistical information about notifications received under the NDB scheme to assist entities and the public to understand the operation of the scheme.

Where data breaches affect multiple entities, the OAIC may receive multiple notifications relating to the same data breach. Notifications to the OAIC relating to the same data breach incident are counted as a single notification in this report.

The source of any given data breach is based on information provided by the reporting entity. Where more than one source has been identified or is possible, the dominant or most likely source has been selected for statistical purposes. Source of data breach categories are defined in the glossary at the end of this report.

Notifications received from all industry sectors

Number of data breaches reported — All sectors

Table 1.A — Number of breaches reported under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme by quarter — All sectors

Quarter

Number of notifications

January to March 2018** As the NDB scheme commenced on 22 February 2018, data is only available for part of the quarter

63

April to June 2018

242

July to September 2018

245

Number of individuals affected by breaches — All sectors

Chart 1.2 — Number of individuals affected by breaches in the quarter — All sectors

Note: Where bands are not shown (for example, 25,001 to 50,000), there were nil reports in the period. ‘Unknown’ includes notifications by entities whose investigations were ongoing at the time of this report.

The majority of data breaches involved ‘contact information’, such as an individual’s home address, phone number or email address. This is distinct from ‘identity information’, which refers to information that is used to confirm an individual’s identity, such as passport number, driver’s licence number or other government identifiers.

Entities also notified data breaches that involved financial details, such as bank account or credit card numbers, individuals’ tax file numbers (TFNs), as well as health information. ‘Other sensitive information’ refers to categories of sensitive information as set out in section 6(1) of the Privacy Act, other than health information as defined in section 6FA.

Source of the breaches — All sectors

This chart breaks down the sources of data breaches as identified by notifying entities in all industry sectors in the quarter.

Malicious or criminal attacks differ from human error data breaches in that they are deliberately crafted to exploit known vulnerabilities for financial or other gain. Attacks included cyber incidents such as phishing, malware, ransomware, brute-force attack and hacking by other means, as well as social engineering or impersonation and actions taken by a rogue employee or insider threat. Theft of paperwork or storage devices was also reported as a source of malicious or criminal attacks. Many cyber incidents this quarter appear to have exploited vulnerabilities involving a human factor (such as clicking on a phishing email or disclosing passwords).

Human error remained a significant source of data breaches, accounting for 37 per cent of all incidents reported (92 notifications).

System faults accounted for 6 per cent of data breaches (14 notifications).

Human error breaches — All sectors

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘human error’ in the quarter.

The second largest source of data breaches was human error. Sending personal information to the wrong recipient via email accounted for 12 per cent of all data breaches during the quarter. This was followed by the unintended release or publication of personal information (6 per cent), loss of paperwork/data storage device (5 per cent), and sending personal information to the wrong recipient via mail (5 per cent). This quarter also included incidents where personal information was provided to the wrong recipient via channels other than email, fax or mail, for example, delivery by hand or uploading to web portal.

However, certain kinds of data breaches can affect larger numbers of people. For example, in this quarter data breaches involving unauthorised disclosure as a result of a failure to redact personal information impacted the largest numbers of individuals (an average of 633 affected individuals per breach). Failures to use the ‘blind carbon copy’ (BCC) function when sending group emails impacted an average of 494 individuals per data breach. In contrast, human errors involving sending personal information to the wrong recipient generally impacted smaller groups of individuals.

Table 1.C — Human error breakdown by average number of affected individuals — All sectors

Kinds of personal information

No. of NDBs received

Average no. of affected individuals

Unauthorised disclosure (failure to redact)

4

633

Failure to use BCC when sending email

6

494

Unauthorised disclosure (unintended release or publication)

14

94

Insecure disposal

1

79

PI sent to wrong recipient (email)

29

70

PI sent to wrong recipient (mail)

13

35

Unauthorised disclosure (verbal)

6

11

Loss of paperwork/data storage device

13

8

PI sent to wrong recipient (fax)

2

5

PI sent to wrong recipient (other)

4

4

Malicious or criminal attack breaches — All sectors

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘malicious or criminal attack’ in the quarter.

Malicious or criminal attacks were the largest source of data breaches this quarter, accounting for 57 per cent of all notifications.

Of the 139 data breaches resulting from a malicious or criminal attack, 69 per cent involved cyber incidents. Many cyber incidents in this quarter involved the exploitation of vulnerabilities involving a human factor (such as clicking on an attachment to a phishing email), as well as incidents involving malware, ransomware, and hacking by other means.

Theft of paperwork or storage devices was the second most reported source of malicious or criminal attacks (12 per cent).

Other sources included actions taken by a rogue employee or insider threat (10 per cent) and social engineering or impersonation (9 per cent).

Cyber incident breaches — All sectors

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘malicious or criminal attack — cyber incident’ in the quarter.

Across all sectors, 9 data breaches related to the unintended release or publication of personal information as a result of a system fault. This includes the disclosure of personal information on a website due to a bug in the web code, or a machine fault that results in a document containing personal information being sent to the wrong person.

Additionally, 5 data breaches related to unintended access to personal information as a result of a system fault, such as a coding error which allows an individual to access another individual’s online account.

The NDB scheme applies to agencies and organisations that the Privacy Act requires to take reasonable steps to secure personal information. This includes Australian Government agencies, businesses and not-for-profit organisations with an annual turnover of $3 million or more, credit reporting bodies, health service providers, and TFN recipients, among others.

From July to September 2018, the top sector to report notifiable data breaches was the private health service provider sector (health sector) (18 per cent). The second largest source was the finance sector (14 per cent). This was followed by the legal, accounting and management services sector (14 per cent), the private education sector (education) (7 per cent), and the personal services sector (5 per cent).

Notifications made under the My Health Records Act 2012 are not included in this report, as they are subject to specific notification requirements set out in that Act.

Source of breaches — Top 5 industry sectors

This chart breaks down the sources of data breaches as identified by notifying entities in the top 5 industry sectors in the quarter.

The highest reporting sector was health service providers (45 notifications). Of those notifications, 56 per cent of data breaches were the result of human error. Notifications from the finance sector, legal, accounting and management services and personal services were generally evenly split between human error and malicious or criminal attacks.

Four of the top five sectors notified at least one breach resulting from a system fault.

Human error breaches — Top 5 industry sectors

This table and chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘human error’ by the top 5 industry sectors in the quarter.

Similar to the overall trend, the majority of cyber incidents in the top five reporting sectors were linked to the compromise of credentials through phishing, brute-force attacks, or by unknown methods.

System fault breaches — Top 5 industry sectors

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘system fault’ by the top 5 industry sectors in the quarter.

Finance sector report

This section captures notifications made under the NDB scheme by entities in the finance sector, such as banks, wealth managers, financial advisors, superannuation funds and consumer credit providers (regardless of annual turnover).

Summary — Finance sector

35 notifications

48% human error

46% malicious or criminal attacks

6% system faults

Number of breaches reported under the Notifiable Data Breaches Scheme — Finance sector

Table 3.A — Number of breaches reported under the Notifiable Data Breaches scheme by the finance sector by quarter

Quarter

Total number of notifications

January to March 2018** As the NDB scheme commenced on 22 February 2018, data is only available for part of the quarter

8

April to June 2018

36

July to September 2018

35

Number of individuals affected by breaches — Finance sector

Chart 3.1 — Number of individuals affected by breaches in the quarter — Finance sector

Note: Where bands are not shown, there were nil reports in the period.

Most notifications in the period from the finance sector involved the personal information of 100 individuals or fewer (74 per cent of breaches). Breaches impacting between 1 and 10 individuals comprised 54 per cent of the notifications. 26 per cent of notifications from the finance sector affected more than 100 individuals.

Almost half of data breaches by the finance sector were the result of human error (48 per cent). Human error data breaches by the finance sector included sending personal information to the wrong recipient by email or mail, as well as loss of paperwork or storage device.

Malicious or criminal attack breaches — Finance sector

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘malicious or criminal attack’ by the finance sector in the quarter.

Malicious and criminal attacks accounted for 46 per cent of data breaches notified by the finance sector. Of these, cyber incidents were the most common type of malicious or criminal attack (69 per cent).

Cyber incident breaches — Finance sector

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘malicious or criminal attack — cyber incident’ by the finance sector in the quarter.

Of the cyber incidents notified by the finance sector, 7 data breaches were related to compromised or stolen credentials (such as phishing or brute-force attacks). Hacked websites or systems was the source for 3 notifications, and ransomware for 1 notification.

System fault breaches — Finance sector

Two notifications in the quarter identified the source of the data breach as a system fault leading to unauthorised access and disclosure of personal information.

Number of individuals affected by breaches — Health sector

The majority of data breaches from the health sector involved the personal information of 100 individuals or fewer (71 per cent of breaches). Data breaches impacting between 1 and 10 individuals comprised 47 per cent of the notifications, while 24 per cent of data breaches affected more than 100 individuals.

Source of the breaches — Health sector

Human error accounted for 56 per cent of data breaches in the health sector (25 notifications). This includes incidents in which a mistake made by a person caused the breach, such as communications sent to the wrong recipient or loss of paperwork or a storage device.

Human error breaches — Health sector

The source of the largest number of data breaches reported by the health sector was human error (56 per cent), with examples including sending personal information to the wrong recipient by email, mail, fax or by other means. Human error also includes the loss of paperwork or storage devices, and the unintended release or publication of personal information.

Malicious or criminal attack breaches — Health sector

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘malicious or criminal attack’ by the health sector in the quarter.

Malicious and criminal attacks were reported as the second largest source of data breaches from the health sector. Of these, theft of paperwork or storage devices was the most common type of attack (42 per cent), and cyber incidents were the second most common type of attack (37 per cent).

Cyber incident breaches — Health sector

This chart breaks down the kinds of breaches identified as ‘malicious or criminal attack — cyber incident’ by the health sector in the quarter.

Glossary

Breach categories

An unintended action by an individual directly resulting in a data breach, for example inadvertent disclosure caused by sending a document containing personal information to the incorrect recipient.

PI sent to wrong recipient (email)

Personal information sent to the wrong recipient via email, for example, as a result of misaddressed email or incorrect address on file.

PI sent to wrong recipient (fax)

Personal information sent to the wrong recipient via facsimile machine, for example, as a result of fax number incorrectly entered or wrong fax number on file.

PI sent to wrong recipient (mail)

Personal information sent to the wrong recipient via postal mail, for example, as a result of transcribing error or wrong address on file.

PI sent to wrong recipient (other)

Personal information sent to the wrong recipient via channels other than email, fax or mail, for example, delivery by hand or uploading to web portal.

Failure to use BCC when sending email

Sending an email to a group by including all recipient emails addresses in the ‘To’ field, thereby disclosing all recipient email address to all recipients.

Insecure disposal

Disposing of personal information in a manner that could lead to its unauthorised disclosure, for example, using a public rubbish bin to dispose of customer records instead of a secure document disposal bin.

Loss of paperwork/data storage device

Loss of a physical asset(s) containing personal information, for example, leaving a folder or a laptop on a bus.

Unauthorised disclosure (failure to redact)

Failure to effectively remove or de-identify personal information from a record before disclosing it.

Unauthorised disclosure (verbal)

Disclosing personal information without authorisation, verbally, for example, calling it out in a waiting room.

Unauthorised disclosure (unintended release or publication)

Unauthorised disclosure of personal information in a written format, including paper documents or online.

Malicious or criminal attack

A malicious or criminal attack deliberately crafted to exploit known vulnerabilities for financial or other gain.

Theft of paperwork or data storage device

Theft of paperwork or data storage device

Social engineering/impersonation

An attack that relies heavily on human interaction to manipulate people into breaking normal security procedures and best practices in order to gain access to systems, networks or physical locations.

Rogue employee/insider threat

An attack by an employee or insider acting against the interests of their employer or other entity.

Software which is specifically designed to disrupt, damage, or gain unauthorised access to a computer system.

Ransomware

A type of malicious software designed to block access to data or a computer system until a sum of money is paid or other conditions are met.

Phishing (compromised credentials)

An attack in which the target is contacted by email or text message by someone posing as a legitimate institution to lure individuals into providing personal information, sensitive information or passwords.

Brute-force attack (compromised credentials)

Automated software is used to generate a large number of consecutive guesses as to the value of the desired data, for example passwords.

Compromised or stolen credentials (method unknown)

Credentials are compromised or stolen by methods unknown.

Hacking (other means)

Exploiting a software or security weakness to gain access to a system or network, other than by way of phishing, brute-force attack or malware.

System fault

A business or technology process error not caused by direct human error.

[3] This sector includes private education providers only, as APP entities, and the Australian National University. Public sector education providers are bound by State and Territory privacy laws, as applicable.

[4] This sector includes employment, training and recruitment agencies, child care centres, vets and community services.

[5] A health service provider generally includes any private sector entity that provides a health service within the meaning of s 6FB of the Privacy Act, regardless of annual turnover. State or Territory public hospitals and health services are generally not covered — they are bound by State and Territory privacy laws, as applicable.

Chart 1.2 — Number of individuals affected by data breaches in the quarter — All sectors

Chart 1.2 is a bar chart showing the number of affected individuals. Where bands are not shown (for example, 25,001 to 50,000), there were nil reports in the period. ‘Unknown’ includes notifications by entities whose investigations were ongoing at the time of this report.

Chart 2.1 — Source of data breaches — Top 5 industry sectors

Chart 2.1 is a bar chart that breaks down the sources of data breaches as identified by notifying entities in the top 5 industry sectors in the quarter, by number of notifications. From least to most total notifications:

Chart 2.2 — Human error breakdown — Top 5 industry sectors

Chart 2.2 is a bar chart that breaks down the kinds of data breaches identified as ‘human error’ by the top 5 industry sectors in the quarter, by number of notifications. From least to most total notifications:

Chart 2.4 — Cyber incident breakdown — Top 5 industry sectors

Chart 2.4 is a bar chart that breaks down the kinds of data breaches identified as ‘malicious or criminal attack — cyber incident’ by the top 5 industry sectors in the quarter. From least to most total notifications:

Chart 2.5 — System fault breakdown — Top 5 industry sectors

Chart 2.5 is a bar chart that breaks down the kinds of data breaches identified as ‘system fault’ by the top 5 industry sectors in the quarter. The legal, accounting and management services sector did not report any data breaches that were the result of a system fault.

Chart 3.1 — Number of individuals affected by data breaches in the quarter — Finance sector

Chart 3.1 is a bar chart that shows the number of individuals affected by data breaches in the quarter in the Finance sector, by number of notifications. Where bands are not shown, there were nil reports in the period.